passage 3 a lot of rubbish.doc

A Lot of Rubbish With dumps filling up fast, America is finally embracing （adopt） a new garbage ethic. 由于垃圾场正在很快被填满，美国终于采用新的垃圾处理方法。 By William J. Cook America, unhappily, is bullish(like a bull) on garbage. Our production of refuse, now about 160 million tons a year, will rise to 193 million tons by the end of the century if nothing is done. This growing effluence( production, making) of affluence (wellbeing), 31/2 pounds a day for every American and rising, is a byproduct of our consumer society, whose watchwords (口号) are convenience, ready to use and throw-away. And it has become a major national environmental issue, forcing citizens, elected officials and private companies to give serious thought to rubbish. 让人感到失望的是，美国的垃圾数量急剧增加。美国现在每年产生大约1亿6千万吨废物，但是如果不采取适当措施进行控制的话，到本世纪末该数字将会攀升到1亿9千3百万吨。我们一直宣扬所谓的“便捷”“方便”和“一次性”，现在平均每个美国人每天产生3.5 磅并且该数字一直还在增加，富足的生活产生的垃圾，是我们这个消费社会的副产品。这已经成为一个举国关注的焦点问题，迫使市民，政府官员以及私营公司齐心应对垃圾处理问题。 The contentious（argumentative, arousing dispute） reality is that the historically cheap and simple solution to trash --dumping it in a landfill just beyond the edge of town—is no longer workable, particularly around major cities. 一个不争的现实就是：传统的低廉且简单的垃圾处理方法—直接把垃圾倒这位于城市边缘的垃圾掩埋场—是行不通了，尤其是在一些大城市周围更是不可能。 Old dumps, which now get 80 percent of all garbage, are filling up, and new ones have become virtually (almost) impossible to build—the result of skyrocketing (increasing very fast) land costs, increasingly stringent(strict) environmental regulations and shrill public opposition to new landfills in my back-yard. 现在接收全部垃圾总量的80%的那些早期的垃圾掩埋场很快就被填满了，但由于低价飞涨，日益严格的环保规定以及公众强烈反对在“他们的后院建垃圾场”， 要建造新的垃圾场几乎不可能。 Five years from now. forecasts Bruce Weddle, director of the Environmental Protection Agencys municipal solid-waste program, well have only half the number of landfills operating.” 环境保护局负责固体市政固体废物处理项目的负责人 Bruce Weddle 预计，“未来5年后，现在的垃圾掩埋场将只有半数能够继续运营。” With this grim （gloomy, serious） prospect, new methods are required, all variations on the only four ways av